ARTBEATS DEMO GEAR

An introduction to Artbeats' library.
By Ko Maruyama

Every convention I see it - or experience it personally. You attend the convention where everything is presented meticulously. You grab a demo CD, then on your return to home, you've forgotten why it was you grabbed it, or what else was at the booth. In this short series I'll take a look at some of the demo ware you might have, or might grab at the upcoming Siggraph.

At various booths throughout the convention halls it all looks so cool; awesome video from current users play on monitors, demo artists click twice and produce a significant animation. Then, when you get the demo CD home, you've completely forgotten what you wanted to do with it; or what it is at all. In this series, I'll take a look at some software that you may already have, but don't know what to do with.

While most demo CDs are filled with short tutorials and a timed or limited versions of the software, you may want a simple 1-2-3 project to see what else you could do with that demo-ware.

ARTBEATS HD IMAGES

Here's a tough one. What do you do with an Artbeats demo CD? Artbeats produces footage rather than software, so there isn't really an operational tutorial that you need to have with the CD, they give you some images to check out. It's a nice introduction to the company, and they give you opportunity to use the material in your work. Here is the beauty behind all of the Artbeats footage you buy. Once you purchase the clip, it's yours to use - no licensing fees - after one or two uses, it's paid for itself.

But if you're new to the process of creating video content, you may wonder why you'd need someone to give you clipart (whether still or moving images). While impossible to put on the the demo CD, a quick visit to their website: http://www.artbeats.com will reveal their massive library and show you how much footage you can choose from.

While orb weavers may be local here in Southern California, they may be a more exotic creature in your neck of the woods. You can shoot in your backyard for bugs? What about icebergs floating in the waters of Antarctica. Film may be cheap enough, but the rest of that shoot will cost you much more than the collection of video clips.

With selections from helicopter shots above New York City, under water scenes through crystal blue waters, to new international HD stock footage, and even retransfers and reshoots of my SD favorites, REELFIRE and REELEXPLOSIONS, the library is expanding even more.

I lost a day just looking through the footage on their website (okay so it was only 4 hours, but that's a long time to spend on one website). Some of the unique and sometimes jarring footage includes Tanks HD, which has audio attached to the footage. (http://www.artbeats.com/prod/product.php?pg=1&id=442)

One of the new collections from Artbeats is their international HD / Holy Land. (Also new to the library is "Teen Life") The image that comes on the demo CD is beautiful. Obviously it's only a still image, so you'll need to log on to purchase the movie - but we can produce some quick animation that to sell the shot to the client before we purchase the clip or collection.